Your Uncle Jack

THis was in todays paper about dad, your Uncle Jack:

Portraying an 'American Life'
Showtime TV series found family life of John 'Jack' Smith of Hamilton especially appealing.

By Eric Robinette
Staff Writer
Sunday, February 17, 2008

HAMILTON — Lights and cameras sparked a lot of action for John "Jack" Smith and his family Saturday, Feb. 16, as a film crew shot an episode at the Berkeley Square retirement community for the Showtime series "This American Life." The show profiles people at different stages of life who all share a very common name. Smith, 79, is at the upper end of the age range for this episode.

Smith and his family have had lunch at the Berkeley Tavern every week for the past four years, and the film crew was there to shoot that and various other slices of Smith's life. John Smith is such a common name that there have been several of them in this family alone. One of them is "Jack's" son John. "It's been fun. We've looked through photo albums, and it's been a real bonding experience, reminiscing and all that, "John Smith said.

"Jack" Smith is a New York City native who made his way to Hamilton in 1959 to work for the Mosler Safe Company. He retired in 1992 as a vice president.

"This American Life" found "Jack" Smith by searching through the country, looking for people who were in the later stages of their life, said Lisa Pollak, one of the producers of the show. They found Smith's family life especially appealing.
"He has this wonderful family to speak about him that takes him to lunch every Saturday. It will be a nice portrait of a man at a stage where he may not be able to say much, but he's surrounded by this family that's tremendously caring," Pollak said.

"Jack" Smith has a form of dementia that makes verbal communication difficult, so during the shoot, the family tried various tactics to get him to talk a little. One of these was trying to figure out which John Wayne movie was his favorite: "Rio Bravo" or "The Sons of Katie Elder."

The family also talked about the pitfalls of having such a common name. "When you sign in to a hotel as 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith,' you get a lot of funny looks," said Susan Smith, John Smith's wife.

Pollak said the show with the Smiths does not have a definitive air date, but it will play sometime in late May or early June. When the show does air, John Smith said he hopes viewers will see "just the life of a great man."

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.

I thought you might appreciate this. Cousin John